COLUMBIA, S.C. — Construction has officially started on Columbia Housing Authority's newest complex, Oaks at Saint Anna's Park.
On Thursday, city officials and Columbia Housing celebrated the groundbreaking of the units, which will be senior apartments and family townhomes.
The complex is going into the vacant lot where Gonzales Gardens once stood on Forest Drive. In 2017, that affordable housing complex was demolished. “We tore it down," recalled city councilman Ed McDowell. "78 years of history, we tore it down because we knew that CHA was going to befit us with a place that was going to be second to none.”
That place will be Oaks at St. Anna’s Park. It will offer 285 units total and bring in mixed-income residents, which means some will be subsidized and some won’t.
Chase Toler, a nearby resident said, "we’re excited to have neighbors that want to stay in the community and invest in the community.” Toler owns a house on McDuffie Street that Columbia Housing helped build.
“They’ve created this project and structured it in a way to promote quality housing over what you might traditionally consider to be affordable housing or public housing," asserted Toler. "This is going to be entirely different.”
Now with construction underway, Oaks at St. Anna’s Park is expected to finish by January 2024. Columbia Housing said some units will be available before then in summer 2023. The project will cost over $70 million.
The complex is part of Columbia Housing’s larger Vision 2030 plan. The agency is revamping its real estate portfolio to modernize their properties and add over 1,000 new affordable units.